The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods for paying bills. More particularly, the present invention is a computerized system for paying bills whereby a consumer may contact a single source from a remote location via a telephone, a computer terminal with modem, or other electronic means, to direct the single source to pay the consumer's bills instead of the consumer writing checks for each bill. A microfiche appendix has been submitted with the parent case of this application Ser. No. 07/736,071, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,113 on Jan. 17, 1995, which contains the program code of the present invention and which in its entirety is incorporated herein by reference. An additional hard copy of the appendix is attached as Exhibit A.
It has been common for many years for consumers to pay monthly bills by way of a personal check written by the consumer and sent by mail to the entity from which the bill or invoice was received. Consumers have used other ways to pay bills, including personally visiting the billing entity to make a cash payment. In today's economy, it is not unusual for a consumer to have several regular monthly invoices to pay. Writing individual checks to pay each invoice can be time-consuming and costly due to postage and other related expenses.
A need exists for a method whereby a consumer can contact a single source and inform the source to pay various bills of the consumer, to have the source adjust the consumer's account with the consumer's financial institution (i.e., bank, credit union, savings and loan association, etc.) to reflect a bill payment, and to actually pay the billing entity a specified amount by a particular time. The system should be efficient and not unreasonably expensive and relatively simple for a consumer to interact with. Some banks have attempted to provide a service for making payment to a few billing entities to which the banks have established relations. The banks that do provide that type of service are limited in that they provide the service only for their own customers since the banks have not developed a system for accurately acquiring and processing account numbers and balances of customers of all other banking institutions and coordinating that information with bill payment. Furthermore, banks have not developed a system for managing the risks involved in providing such a service and the inherent complexities of providing the service to consumers other than the bank's own customers. Therefore, a need exists for a single source bill payment system that would be available to any consumer, regardless of where the consumer banks and regardless of what bills are to be paid.
The present invention is designed to fulfill the above listed needs. The invention provides a universal bill payment system that works regardless of the consumer's financial institution and bill to be paid. The present invention provides a computerized system by which a consumer may pay bills utilizing the telephone, a computer terminal, or other electronic, data transmission means. Transactions are recorded against the consumer's account wherever he or she banks. The consumer may be an individual or a business, large or small. The present invention works regardless of where the consumer banks.
The method of the present invention includes: gathering consumer information and creating a master file with banking information and routing codes; inputting payment instructions by the consumer at a convenient location (e.g., at home), typically remote from the payment service provider, by using an input terminal such as a push-button telephone; applying the payment instructions to the consumer's file; using computer software of the present invention to examine various files to determine such things as what is the appropriate form of payment based on variables involving banking institutions and merchants; comparing each transaction against a dynamic credit file and routing based on set parameters; and, if the payment system determines that everything is ready for payment to be made, adjusting the consumer's account (usually by debiting) and making payment directly to the billing entity. The single source service provider for consumer bill payment could be any entity with the capability to practice the invention as described hereinafter. The foregoing and other objects and advantages will become more apparent when viewed in light of the accompanying drawings and following detailed description.